


Losing Secrets

by Tapioka_Tapestry



Series: Festival Nights [2]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Fujiwaras, Gen, Madara secretly cares, Natori is there too, Publicity, everyone knows, gratuitous amounts of nishimura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:43:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tapioka_Tapestry/pseuds/Tapioka_Tapestry
Summary: After a youkai stunt exposes Natsume's secret to the entire school, it isn't long before he starts attracting more attention than he has ever had before.





	Losing Secrets

When the festival ended, Natsume almost felt a bit sad.

Taki, Nishimura, Tanuma, and Kitamoto were talking to Chobi and asking about how he first met Natsume, how he had asked him to stop the human girl from drawing mysterious circles in the ground. Nyanko-Sensei sat nearby, seemingly uninterested until there was the opportunity to chime in with a snark comment.

"She frightened me and many of my friends, not to mention the... reaction those humans who saw me had."

"Why were you drawing circles, Taki? Just for fun?"

"Oh, it's a long story."

"Pleeeeaaaase!"

Taki looked at Natsume, who resigned himself and nodded. This interaction didn't escape the watchful eyes of Nishimura, though.

"What was that look? Is he involved? Wow, you're prolific, Natsume! All of these youkai have some story about you helping them in some way or another."

Natsume chuckled, a bit uncomfortable.

"You're exaggerating."

"He's not, you know. This idiot gets his nose in everyone's business." 

That last comment was of course, courtesy of Nyanko-Sensei.

Nishimura didn't let himself get distracted and quickly got back on topic, asking Taki to tell him about the circles. Although Nishimura had been in the youkai world for only a few hours, he had gone around talking to so many of Natsume's otherworldly acquaintances that he had heard many stories about how Natsume had helped them in their time of need.

"So chob-... uhh..."

"What is it, child of man?"

Nishimura was staring at Chobi with an odd look on his face. At first Natsume was a bit confused, but then he looked around at all the faces in the circle and saw that they shared Nishimura's expression.

At that moment, the lights and stalls faded, the night sky was replaced with the setting sun of the evening, and all that was left (for Natsume, at least) was the youkai.

It was finally midnight in the world of youkai, and the connection was broken.

Students that were all over the grounds looked around them, and realized the strangeness was over. The trickle of students leaving the gates strengthened into a flood, and finally it was just Natsume, his friends, and the youkai, who never seemed to realize when it was time to stop partying.

He managed to convince his friends that they should leave, too, as they were hours late and their parents were probably worried sick. With that reasoning, Natsume said goodbye to his friends as they walked out the gates, promising that this conversation would be continued tomorrow, as well as a _good _explanation as to why he kept this from Nishimura.

Then, one by one, the youkai lined up and bid him a good night and thanked him for all of the sake they had consumed. Some of them even tried to give him some. 

When Natsume and Nyanko-Sensei were the last ones there, he heaved a sigh and walked out, trying to closing the school gates behind him.

The walk back was mostly quiet, until Nyanko-Sensei yawned, and spoke the question that had been on Natsume's mind for the entire night.

"What are you going to tell the Fujiwaras? With all of the children knowing, it is bound to get back to them at some point or another."

Natsume sighed, "I know. But I don't want to drag them into this too."

"You may not have a choice, you know."

They walked back the rest of the way in silence, Natsume considering what he should do next.

That night was relatively normal, they all enjoyed a nice dinner with Nyanko-Sensei leeching off of Natsume's plate.

After they were all done, Shigeru set down his plate and looked uncharacteristically stern.

"Natsume, I didn't want to bring this up before dinner, but what happened?"

Touko nodded her head emphatically, a few of her restrained hairs shaking loose.

"Mothers were calling me saying that their children weren't back and asking if you were, or if I knew where anyone was. It was almost quite a big issue."

"Someone even found out that the teachers weren't home yet either. What happened at your school today?"

Natsume took a deep breath, and reached down to pick up the large cat on the floor. 

He began slowly petting Nyanko-Sensei, his hands trembling a bit. He was still nervous, despite himself. He felt a rumble come from inside Nyanko-Sensei, and his soft head rubbed against his hand.

Natsume began,

"This might sound strange, but I've always been able to see... monsters. Youkai. Things that other people can't see."

Touko and Shigeru's eyes widened and they took a collective breath. Whatever they had been expecting, this wasn't it.

"I'm sorry I haven't told you guys, I just didn't want you to worry, and when I tried to tell other people... they would always... think..."

Touko stood up slowly and walked around the table. She stood over Natsume for a moment, unsure of herself, before she bent down and wrapped him in a soft hug. Shigeru followed soon after, encasing Natsume in a tight squeeze. Natsume let out a small chuckle and felt his eyes sting.

"Oi! You're crushing me!"

Shigeru jumped back in alarm, not recognizing the angry voice. Touko took a few steps back, too.

"Jeez. First you stuff me silly and then try to squeeze it out, is that your plan?"

The circular cat in Natsume's arm was speaking. That took a few seconds to sink in.

"K-kitty?"

"Nyanko-Sensei! Don't you think this is a bit too early?"

"Pssht. They would have found out sooner or later. Plus, I was going to be suffocated."

Nyanko-Sensei turned to address the Fujiwaras,

"Yes, I am talking. This may come as a shock to your feeble minds, but I am actually a higher being of great power. I have enslaved this human boy here so that he can eventually become my delicious sna-"

Natsume's fist quickly ended his boasting.

"Stop that, Nyanko-Sensei! You're scaring them."

Touko reached out tentatively and began petting him, a soft purr escaped from his supposedly fierce maw.

"Are you one of those creatures, then, that Natsume can see? A youkai?"

"In that case, why can we see you?" Shigeru was trying to rationalize this insane situation as much as he could.

"Hmph. You think that this is my true form? Please. This is merely a vessel that I use to make myself visible to you humans. If you were to witness my true form, you would realize how ridiculous your statements are."

Shigeru began to chuckle, and eventually he let out a booming laugh. 

"Sorry, it's just that, this makes so much sense. All the times you've been late, I hear you sneaking out at night, or I hear you talking to yourself up in your room... it was all because of youkai?"

Natsume nodded, his face flushed. He didn't think the Fujiwaras were to aware of his nightly activities. Shigeru's hand reached down and ruffled Natsume's hair.

"What an incredible child we brought home, Touko."

Touko nodded, tears pooling in her eyes. Natsume felt like he was going to start crying too.

"Yeah."

Shigeru walked back around and sat down across from Natsume.

"So, what happened today at school? Does it have anything to do with youkai?"

"Yes."

Natusme explained what had happened, and although they found the situation a bit funny, everyone realized the significance of what had just happened.

By this time tomorrow, most likely everyone in town would know about Natsume. After all, it was a bit hard to dismiss the testimony of an entire high school, teachers included.

It was late at night when they finally finished discussing the events of that day, and Natsume said good night and went straight up to bed.

He had the first truly good night of sleep for as long as he could remember.

* * *

The news spread faster than they had imagined. Much faster. When Natsume woke up that morning, Touko gave him permission to skip school that day, but he figured that it was inevitable and he would need to face the music at some point.

Nyanko-Sensei insisted on staying in his school bag, in case the eleven came back and Nyanko-Sensei wanted to give them a piece of his mind.

As he walked out the door, he spotted a camera crew waiting outside the Fujiwara's gate. A pretty, middle aged woman with a tight bun stepped out in front of him.

"Are you Natsume Takashi?"

"Yes?"

Her face contorted into a fake, cheerful smile.

"Sekiji Hiori here with Channel 12 news. Would you care to tell me about the dissapearance of your high school last night?"

"Uhh..."

"We have reliable reports that the entire school building disappeared for around three hours, taking students and faculty with it."

"Yeah, I don't really know what happened."

Natsume let out an uncomfortable laugh, trying to dodge around the news crew, but Hoiri saw it coming and blocked him.

"We even have a few reports that you are the one responsible for this incident."

At that moment, an overweight cat jumped onto the camera man and chaos ensued, letting Natsume and Nyanko-Sensei get around them. Natsume began jogging away.

He finally reached school, a bit out of breath, and looked around to see something straight out of his nightmares.

There were at least three news vans parked outside the school, and they were stopping students and interviewing them about what had happened. There was a girl being interviewed by one of the networks, she was the upperclassmen that had been the first one to try to leave the grounds the night before.

Natsume couldn't hear what she was saying, but by her body language it was clear she was dramatically telling about her daring escape attempt. The news cameras caught it all in rapt attention, probably not expecting such a strange story from such a straight-laced girl.

Suddenly, she looked over at Natsume.

"There he is!"

The students who had been walking through the school gate all turned to look, staring at him. There was a second of stillness, followed by the clamor of dozens of students and film crews rushing up to him and bombarding him with questions.

"What happened last night?"

"What were those creatures, Natsume?"

"How did you teleport the entire school like that?"

"Do you have superpowers?"

Fortunately, before they could get any answers out of him, the principal stepped in and made everyone back off or go to class. Although, by the look in his eye he also had a fair amount to ask Natsume, but he kept his questions to himself.

That morning went by surprisingly peacefully. At one point, Natsume dropped an eraser and the entire class jumped in surprise when he bent down to pick it up.

At lunch, not many people approached his seat other than Nishimura and Kitamoto who took their usual places and resumed their interrogation.

"So can other people see what you can?"

"Yeah. There's this whole group of people called exorcists who try to trap the aggressive ones who are causing harm to humans."

Nyanko-Sensei poked his head out of Nastume's bag.

"Sometimes even ones who aren't causing harm get sealed, though."

Natsume nodded his head grimly.

"So why aren't you an exorcist?"

"We tend to not see... eye to eye on a lot of things."

"We talked about this, Nastume! I need specifics!"

If Kitamoto thought Nishimura was being too pushy, he didn't try to stop him.

"Well, there's this one exorcist who keeps trying to recruit me into his clan, but I've seen his methods and he treats youkai more as tools than as actual creatures."

At this point, Nastume realized that the rest of the class had fallen silent and were intently listening to their conversation.

"Still, why does he want _you _for his clan?"

Kitamoto nudged Nishimura, indicating that his wording might have been a bit insensitive. Natsume just laughed it off.

"As much as his appearance might tell you otherwise, this idiot is actually very powerful. That's what makes him so tasty to other youkai, and why he tends to attract them."

This time Kitamoto chimed in.

"Wait, Natsume, you attract youkai?"

The class seemed to hold their breath for a second.

"Not so much anymore. When I was a kid and I didn't know what they were, they would try to eat me a lot. But now I know most of the youkai in this area."

A sigh of relief. No one liked the thought of invisible monsters invading the school (again).

Kitamoto's mind briefly went back to the time when he and Natsume had been mysteriously alone at school, looking for a missing bell.

Lunch ended, and Natsume felt like he had been able to quell some of his classmates concerns. The day finally ended after what seemed like an eternity of class, and Natsume had to be escorted out of the school gates by the principal, to avoid the cameras.

As he walked home with Nishimura and Kitamoto, things finally felt like they were getting back to normal. Their interrogation had finally ended, or at least taken a recess, and they were once again just chatting casually about the weather and school.

Natsume came back home, enjoyed dinner and a bath, and was about to go to bed when he noticed a paper doll tapping on his window.

He opened it, and it fluttered inside, and promptly fell to the ground, it's purpose served.

He picked it up and found a note attatched to it. It said, in very simple terms;

"Outside".

That could only mean one thing, and Natsume walked downstairs and outside where he saw a figure waiting on the opposite side of the street.

"Natori?"

"Natsume. Good to see you again."

"Same here, what's going on?"

"I was in town for a job and I thought I should come check in on you with this your school disappearing thing."

Natsume flushed. He hadn't expected Natori to find out so fast.

"So I guess the cat's out of the bag, huh."

"Yeah. It's been a long day."

"I can imagine. So, what happened?"

Natsume filled him in on all of the details, and Natori tried to keep himself from laughing too hard.

"So their plan was to put your entire school to sleep? How impractical. Well, that's youkai for you."

Soon, they were both laughing. Natsume was glad that he was able to talk with Natori, even if it was for a short while. His presence was reassuring.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the news. I mean, all they have is testimony and these things tend to lose interest quickly. I bet they'll be gone tomorrow."

They talked for a few more minutes about the job that Natori was working before Natsume went inside for the night.

As he watched him go in, Natori let out one last chuckle before walking back down the street, out of sight.  
  


A few yards away, Sekiji Hiori with channel 12 news was crouched in the dark, holding a voice recorder. She stopped it, and listened back a few seconds.

To anyone who had seen a television in the past couple years, the voice of Natori Shuuichi was nothing short of unmistakeable. And here she had a tape with him talking about monsters and magic with some kid who was the prime suspect in the disappearance of an entire high school. 

This was a career-maker, and she knew it. Suddenly very happy she had been begged by her camera crew to go back to retrieve their mic cover that the cat had knocked off that morning, she walked calmly back over to her car and sped off, back to her office.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for going AWOL on this story, just getting back into it. Hope y'all enjoy! Let me know what you think in the comments.


End file.
